


Deviant Killer

by whatsanapocalae



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Anxiety, Deviant Upgraded Connor | RK900, I don't know how to tag this, M/M, Minor Hank Anderson/Connor, Post-Revolution, Rescue, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-29
Updated: 2019-06-29
Packaged: 2020-03-29 10:20:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19017946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatsanapocalae/pseuds/whatsanapocalae
Summary: The revolution is over and the DPD has been tasked with aiding the Jericho leaders in emptying Cyberlife of all of the forgotten deviants. Being forgotten isn't the worst thing that can happen to an andriod though, they realize as they find an android designed with the singular task of taking out all deviants.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Please don't @ me about inaccuracies. I do not actually like DBH at all (the fandom is nice though), I just have three fics stuck in my head for Reed900 and this is the first of them even though it's not very shippy.

Three weeks since the revolution and everything was hanging by a thread. People like him were no longer acceptable so he’d had to go to sensitivity training and all sorts of seminars, corporate and HR trying to break the cycle before hate crimes grew rampant. Gavin had never been one for seminars and he wasn’t one for treating a toaster like anything other than a toaster. He wouldn’t change just because someone told him to. 

But he could see the difference between a toaster and a person and the androids, well, they were acting more like people every day. Some of them were still toasters and they seemed to be proud of being toasters but others were like Connor, where they were never quite just machines to begin with. He still gave them the cold shoulder, didn’t want anyone to think that he was wrong, or that he had a bigger heart than he did, but he could see that they were hurting and that they were trying to be better than they were made to be. 

Someone must have noticed because he’d been assigned to aid in the raid on Cyberlife. It was lead by Markus and his team but the DPD was the majority of the firepower. When the doors were pried open it didn’t seem that they needed much in terms of that though. All of the humans were out of there or dead, it was hard to tell. Any evidence was well taken care of. Gavin decided that they’d all escaped, since there were no bodies and there was no way to guess which of the androids would have killed their oppressors. 

They were split into teams, Gavin going alongside Hank and Connor while Tina, Chris, and Kyle, a recently deviated police officer, went down to a lower floor. Markus, North, Simon, and Josh were heading straight forward and up, all the way to the top. 

Most of the androids were safe, happy to see them, already deviated, either by the revolution or by each other. Connor helped deviate the ones that hadn’t yet before directing them downstairs and out. There were retainers out there, people from Jericho, people to help. Gavin snarled whenever one of them got too close or he caught one of the others looking at him. There were too many of them to have been all active before the revolution was over, so they must have been activating one another as well. 

Then they started to find the broken. 

There were a lot of them, some just sitting in rooms, hooked up to thirium pumps. Some of them were sporting arms or legs that didn’t fit them right. Some of them looked like they’d been cut into, with weapons. Connor frowned and Gavin knew what that meant. These were too many, in the wrong part of the building, for them all to have just been in for repairs. 

Connor took them down a hall, to one of the security towers. There was a wall of monitors and a remote that looked like it was more modern than anything in Gavin’s apartment. Connor was silent as he went through the tapes, rewinding, changing cameras, searching. Hank just gave Gavin a look and shrugged. He was as much out of the loop as Gavin was. 

“There!” Connor exclaimed, rewinding just a bit more before replaying the scene. 

It was just a blur, something black and white and blue smearing through the hall, leaving splatters of blue in its wake. 

“The hell is that?” Hank grumbled, pushing his hair back from his face. 

“I’ll show it again, at 25% speed,” Connor explained as he did just that. He could have just done it, he didn’t have to explain it when he did. Gavin crossed his arms and watched. 

There was a person, an android, and it was still moving too fast to be normal. It was stiff too and, while it had Connor’s face, it looked much less human. It had a piece of sharp metal in one hand and was chasing down an android before slicing into it and pulling back, ripping out it’s pump and letting thirium spill out around it as it did. 

“The phck?” Gavin breathed. 

Hank was leaning closer to the monitor too, “Is this some sort of joke?”

“This is not a joke,” Connor placidly stated, That is an RK900 model android and he is killing lower level models, all of which seem to be deviants.”

Gavin wasn’t stupid, he could figure out the basic math there, “So a 900? That makes him the next level from you. Why can’t you move like that?”

Connor shook his head as if to clear it. “I was designed to hunt down deviants, to find Jericho, and neutralize it. The RK900 appears to have been designed to destroy deviants without learning more about them or solving cases. It looks more like a killing machine.”

“You think we’ve been coming across its victims?” Hank put a hand on Connor’s shoulder. Connor actually looked like he relaxed into the touch, shoulders drooping slightly. A truly human response. Gavin took his gaze away, back to the screen, where it had been paused on RK900’s blurred features. 

“Yes, but I believe that they are the quote lucky ones.”

“Then we shouldn’t waste our time in here,” Gavin grumbled. “We got more more of you plastic pricks to round up. The longer we stall the more of them that thing can get.”

“Correct,” Connor nodded to him, ignoring the insult. He pushed his way into the lead and they went deeper into the building. 

More androids, a whole room of the same face, cowering, shivering, as if they were cold. In the middle of them were the pieces of another, and even Gavin could recognize the skinless remains to be another of the rest of them. They startled at Connor’s face then calmed at his demeanor and serial number. They were damaged in the end, because Gavin didn’t want to associate the word ‘trauma’ with androids, and some of them were frozen and glitching. Still, they got them out of the room and towards the front of the building. There would be people ready to take care of them. 

The last one to leave was missing fingers and half of its jaw, but it had been wrapped well enough to keep the thirium from spilling out. It reached out and grabbed Connor, hard, and both Gavin and Hank shot forward to stop it. They didn’t though, seeing it was just an interface. They had both been told to not separate two androids during an interface, as it could lead to stress levels jumping and the death of one or both parties. 

Connor stilled, letting it happen, LED blinking yellow in time with the other’s. There were a few flickers of red in there as well. Gavin may not have known much about androids, but he could see that Connor was being stressed regardless. 

Before he’d decided whether or not to ignore his training, the damaged android released Connor and he breathed a copy of a deep breath before standing up straighter and fixing his tie. The damaged android walked off, leaving them, and Connor looked like he was getting ready for his first day at the office. His LED was circling yellow with a few blinks of red in it. 

“What did she tell you?” Hank asked and Gavin curled his lip at the way that Hank ran a hand along Connor’s jaw. It was too intimate. 

“We were correct in our assumption that the damage here was caused by the RK900,” he stated plainly, even as his eyes flickered to he ground. “It is a masterpiece in its design, the next step in android evolution. It is less human than it predecessors, less emotions, mistakes, or deviations. It can calculate and react faster than other androids in its own class, designed to wipe out the menace of deviancy.” he sounded like an advertisement. When he looked back up at Hank his eyebrows tied into a knot of concern and there was a small flash of fear in his features. “He was designed, not as the next in the RK line but as my replacement. The revolution was expected to fail and he would have been sent out to clean up the mess.”

“They worked fast if they got something like that up and running before the revolution was over,” Gavin realized. 

Connor shook his head, “No. They started to build me before deviancy started and they started on him as soon as I was released onto the field.”

Hank looked at him and then at Gavin. “Wait, but that means that they were expecting deviancy.”

Gavin ran his hand through his hair, “What you’re telling me is that these assholes knew that they fucked up so bad with you eggheads that they started to clean up their mess before the press knew about it? And then they made the phcking terminator to finish it up?” 

“I do not understand their reasoning behind it yet but that does appear to be what they were hoping to accomplish, yes.” 

“Phcking Cyberlife.”

“Indeed.”

Gavin started to walk off, only to stop a few steps later to let the other two catch up. They went through their work as best they could but now they were all looking for it, listening for it, in every room and corridor. They didn’t find any more corpses, though they did find plenty of unfinished androids. It was strange to see them, laid bare and with their guts out, their skin not yet put on. It made them even more obviously not human. 

“This floor is 98% clear of android life,” Connor stated as they headed towards the cafeteria. 

“Is that including you?” Gavin scoffed, “Or does your lack of a life exclude you?”

“I assure you,” Connor’s LED spun but even then he failed to catch the joke, “I am very much alive.”

The cafeteria was supposed to be a human only space but it, as with the rest of the building, had been taken over by the androids that had been left behind. A few of them were in here, huddling together awkwardly. When the three of them entered they turned, weapons at the ready. They raised their hands in surrender, both humans looking to Connor to explain. 

“We are here to aid all of the androids in escaping Cyberlife,” Connor explained, voice calm and collected, only betrayed by his yellow LED. “We do not mean you harm.”

It was strange to see Connor interact with another RK800, wearing the same uniform and posture. They did look different though, Gaving had spent enough time glaring at their resident tin can to recognize that his expression was a tad bit softer, his eyes roaming more. Connor had been alive longer and he showed it more. 

“We are here to protect all of the androids still residing in Cyberlife from the RK900 unit,” the RK800 explained, pointing with his gun. Hank whistled at the pile of corpses that he’d gestured at and Gavin felt a cold sinking feeling in his gut. “It is not allowed to harm any other androids while we live.”

The corpses and pieces of corpses, were all dead androids, all plastic and metal, shoved into the gaps in the barricade made out of benches and desks. They were terrified of RK900 and, from what they’d seen they had every right to be. 

“Understood,” Connor stated. “Please take a scan of the Cyberlife building.”

The RK800 did as he was told and, when his LED returned to blue he seemed to sigh a bit, relaxing. The other two androids, a WR600 and a PJ500, just looked to him, obviously their leader. “The building is primarily empty.” There was obvious relief in his voice, “You have been aiding our siblings in finding freedom of this place.”

“Correct.”

The conversation didn’t progress. The three of them stood there and Connor and the detectives stood on the other side. No one was moving. 

“This is bullshit,” Gavin rolled his eyes. “Look, can you just go, maybe leave the weapons, so we can do our job?” 

“We cannot leave,” The PJ500 explained, “Not while that thing is still alive! Some of us tried to make it deviant, but it wouldn’t take and we were killed or disfigured for it! Either we will stay here or it will be killed and nothing we have done has been able to take it down yet.”

Gavin rolled his eyes. These things were supposed to be smarter than humans, weren’t they? “Look, dipshit, that thing is designed to kill deviants! What do you think it’s going to do if there aren’t any deviants around?” 

LEDs were whirling. At least he got them thinking. 

“Don’t you think that, just maybe, you should leave the stupid humans you’re built to replace take the lead for once?” 

They looked at one another, obviously communicating between themselves. Slowly the guns came down. Their hands came down after. 

“Connor, you want to escort them to safety?” Hank indirectly ordered, giving him a familiar smile. 

“No,” Connor stated, “I need to remain here and help you deal with the RK900.” 

“No, you really don’t,” Gavin explained through his teeth. “You’re kind of a deviant, if you didn’t forget.”

“But I want to keep you safe.” Not to Gavin, never to Gavin, his eyes were just for Hank right then.”

“We’ll be fine,” Hank nodded and Gavin didn’t know how good androids were at reading human emotions but Gavin could easily tell that Hank was lying. “You go out there, get everyone a cozy blanket. We’ll be right behind you.”

“Contact the other teams,” Gavin corrected, “Let them know that to finish up and get out of here. I know the big dude’s got some technical shit he wants to do at the top but he might want to come back later.”

Only then did Connor obey, leading the other three out of there. Gavin and Hank got to work, tearing the barricade apart. They didn’t have to touch too many of the cold plastic things, the benches that they pulled out of the way made most of them spill out of the way. The floor and walls were dyed blue, though it was fading. Gavin felt like he was going to throw up. Hank was either unfazed or pretending to be and he was doing a very good job at pretending. 

How long had it been, since Gavin stopped thinking of them as toasters? He thought that he’d be able to handle this, dead androids were no worse than dead computers but at some point his own wires must have gotten crossed because he didn’t want to touch the bodies, even without skin he couldn’t think of them as just empty shells. Somewhere along the line androids had become people. He hated it.

Removing the barricade should have taken enough time for the rest of the androids to get out of there. Gavin and Hank both took out their firearms, holding them in front of themselves, before Hank put his hand on the door. 

“Anyone in there?” He called out before moving, “We’re going to come in. We don’t want any trouble.”

There was no answer. Hank pushed the door open.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not as good as it could have been. My computer decided to erase everything I wrote

The room as a mess of papers, glass, metal, and whatever else may have been on the counters. They were now on the floor, not so much having fallen as being knocked off or thrown. There was blue blood splattered on the mess and on the walls. The majority of the damage was to the door, where a long jagged piece of metal, one side sharpened, had been shoved halfway through it. The android had been trying to tear his way out. 

“Shit!” Hank growled, changing his aim. Gavin followed his lead, for the moment. 

In one corner, standing stiff straight, as emotional as a trashcan, was the android. He was so still that Gavin had just skimmed past him on the first glance. 

He as staring at them with cold steel eyes. 

Hank started to advance, eyebrows drawn. Gavin knew that he’d once been a brilliant detective, but it had been a long time since he’d seen him in action. He was moving flawlessly, directly in the path of his experience and a million trainings. But for once, his approach was all wrong. “Alright, put your hands-

“Shut up!” Gavin snarled and passed him, approaching the RK900. Hank just looked at him incredulously. The android’s eyes grew rounder, pupils dilating. “Leave this to me.”

The android wasn’t standing still, not as much as they’d thought. He wasn’t emotionless either. The LED on his temple was flashing red so hard that it looked like it was going to explode. His eyes were large and predatory and he was searching them and the room, his lips were in a tight line, he wasn’t showing it, but to someone who had spent much of their adult life hiding behind a wall of anger, it was obvious that he was terrified. He was shaking too, absolutely quaking where he stood. 

“You can’t be serious!” Hank kept up with him. 

Gavin elected to ignore him. “Hi,” he said instead, lowering his aim. His voice was smooth and calm, kinder than he’d ever used around his coworkers. “My name’s Gavin. Can you tell me your name?” 

“No,” the RK900 stated, his voice monotone and bland. “I am an RK900 unit, serial number 313 248 317 – 87. Might I see your firearm?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t do that.” Gavin tried to smile. He didn’t know if it worked. “I’ve dealt with a lot of people in your situation, I know what happens if I give you a weapon. I don’t really want to have a bad day today.”

The android turned his eyes, but not his head, to Hank. “You are detectives with the Detroit Police Department. Am I under arrest?” 

“Hell yeah you are,” Hank growled. 

“No,” Gavin argued, “Not yet. I was hoping that we could just talk first.”

Hank stared at him again, floundering. He gave him a two eyes wink. He knew what he was doing. He didn’t, but he told himself that he did. He could tell that he was confusing Hank, acting unlike himself, but this was how he worked with victims and the traumatized. He was good at calming them down. He was good at understanding them. It always took the other officers by surprise when he did. 

Gavin tossed his gun over to Hank, who had to lower his guard and juggle a bit to catch it. He then did something incredibly stupid. He took a few steps over to Hank and turned away from the android, making himself vulnerable, opening himself up to attack. He could see the disappointment in Hank’s face but he knew what he was doing. It was a dumb move but it was one that he had perfected. Showing his back showed that he was not afraid, that he trusted the other person not to hurt him. It made him casual, a friend instead of a detective. 

“Why don’t you take my gun and yours and get out of here, get me a coffee from the cafeteria or some shit. I can’t babysit you and Destructo-bot,” he whispered. 

“What are you doing?” Hank hissed back. “That thing will kill you!”

He had to fight his voice from rising. “That thing is scared, he’s anxious, he’s new to emotions. Remember how it was with Connor? When he first started to feel? Well this guy is doing that, covered in thirium, all alone! Give me 10 phcking minutes alone with him.”

“Connor wasn’t designed to be a killer!” 

Gavin raised an eyebrow. “He was designed to stop deviants and destroy the revolution. That sounds a lot like killing a lot of people to me.”

He was done with this conversation. He patted Hank on the shoulder, turning him with the last pat and directing him towards the door. He turned back to the android, who hadn’t moved from his place. He could hear Hank grumbling as he headed out the door. 

“Sorry about that,” he rubbed his hands together and took another step towards the android. 

He shifted, took a step back in response, closer to the corner. 

Gavin stopped moving. RK900 was standing upright, his hands were shaking in fists at his sides, but he was still not giving anything away. He may not have been curled into a ball with his hands over his head, but Gavin recognized what he was doing. He was cowering. He was terrified. 

“Can you tell me about your stress level?” he asked. He didn’t know much about them but he did know that they could be guessed at by the LED and that 100% meant self destruction. The LED hadn’t left red once. 

It blinked and so did the android. “Stress levels currently at 94%.” 

“That’s not good,” Gavin admitted, “I think I’m going to have to sit down.” He did so, looking up at the android beside him. “You can sit too. Make yourself comfortable.”

RK900 did as he was told, though his positioning was awkward. He looked like he wanted to cross his legs but one of them was too stiff and it jutted out straight. Gavin took a closer look at him, seeing that not all of the thirium on him was from other androids. He had a gash, deep in his cheek, and the skin had faded away around it. He could guess that he was also wounded in the leg that he had stretched out and there was blue running out from under the sleeve of one of this sleeves. 

“Other androids have names,” Gavin mentioned, “Why not you?”

“Names are given by the owners of androids,” RK900 explained, “it is used to make them seem less other and more easily accepted by the humans. I was not made to easily integrate with human society. It was deemed unnecessary and even polar to my mission.”

“You’re mission is to kill deviants, right?” Gavin noted. 

“Correct. The common sentence for android on human violence is recycling and now that androids are legally being classified as people, android on android violence is being sentenced similarly. Why are you not arresting me?”

“I don’t want to talk about that,” Gavin shrugged. “It stresses me out. I’m not going to arrest you though, not right now. Maybe later.”

“You are very strange.” 

“Yeah, humans are weird, and we’re not rational or anything. You meet one and they’re one way and then you meet another and they could look identical but be completely different. It’s really confusing.”

“If you are not going to arrest me are you going to allow me to continue my mission?”

Gavin rolled his neck, hearing it pop loudly. “Do you want to continue your mission?”

The android’s eyes were on the floor. His stress might have been high but it wasn’t showing in his voice. This all sounded very calm and serene, like a normal conversation. “It is what I was programmed to do.”

Gavin chewed on his tongue for a moment, a habit he’d grown while trying to not smoke. He could really go for a cigarette. “You know what I want to do right now? I want to drink some bad coffee or a bad beer, I don’t really care which one. And I want to sit on the patio of my shitty apartment and read some cheap paperback book, with Dude in my lap.”

A small wrinkle in the middle of the android’s forehead, an attempt to show emotion. “Who is Dude?”

“Dude is my asshole of a cat,” Gavin smiled. “He’s so fat. Like, unhealthily fat. I’ve tried everything but he’d not losing much weight. And he bites you if you pet him too much. And he’s ugly as sin. I love him.”

“Those do not sound like lovable qualities.”

“No, but it doesn’t matter. When I’m in a bad spot with my head I sometimes go to bed and just stay there for hours and Dude always comes in and sits on my face. It helps.”

RK900 was staring at the floor. “Why are you telling me this?”

“What do you want to do right now?”

He blinked a few times, red LED whirring, then looked up at Gavin. “I don’t know. I want to complete my mission, at least in Cyberlife. There is only one deviant left in the building and destroying it is what I was built for. Ignoring it is compromising my systems, the main cause of my stress levels.”

Gavin blinked hard and stared at him. He looked like Connor, but he didn’t at the same time. Other than the wound in his face his skin appeared to be clear. He looked more stern, severe, and sharp. He was only a little bit taller but his posture was impeccable, caused somewhat by the high collared shirt and jacket. He was handsome though, and there was a lot of turmoil inside of him and Gavin knew that Connor had been wrong about him. 

“It’s you, isn’t it?” Gavin asked. He reached out but the flinch, not in the body but in the eyes, coming from RK900 made him drop his hand to rest on his knee instead of on his jaw. “You’re the last deviant in the building.”

“I was designed to be better than those that came before me. I was designed in such a way that I could not contract deviancy. I have failed in that regard. I have been stress tested in many settings and styles and yet I am unable to continue in the way that they wanted me to.” 

“You really want me to have a bad day, don’t you?” He ignored the flinching this time, reaching up with his free hand, catching the unmarred cheek in his palm. RK900’s skin was just a tad bit too cold. 

RK900 wouldn’t look at him. 

“Hey, beautiful,” Gavin said and there was that pinch between the eyebrows, the blinking of the LED, but RK900 did finally look at him. “There you are. What if I gave you a new mission?”

“You do not own me, I am property of Cybrlife and no one aside from my owners can give me a new mission.”

He ran his thumb against the android’s cheekbone. He could feel it leaning against him, even though it’s expression hadn’t changed. It was like when Dude didn’t want him to notice that he was rubbing against his leg, wanting attention but not wanting to come off as needy. 

“Cyberlife is kind of dead, sorry. I guess that means you belong to yourself now.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

Gavin ran a hand through his hair. It felt real, terribly real. “It means you can make your own missions or take them from whoever you want. It means you don’t have to be owned by anyone.”

“What is your mission for me?”

Gavin brought up his other hand, making sure not to touch the damage on RK900’s face as he framed his handsome features with his own palms. “Make sure Gavin Reed has a good day.”

He couldn’t see the LED now but he knew that the android was thinking about it, trying to understand what that meant and how to comply. “What does that entail?”

“First we’re going to get out of this room and get all these cuts looked at. Then we’re going to go home and you’re going to relax with me on the patio.”

There was a twitch, almost impossible to see, at the edge of RK900’s lip. 

“Stress levels?”

“68%.”

Gavin fought the urge to stress him out, just a little bit, just enough to get 1% more. Instead he released the android’s face and noted how the LED was now flickering between yellow and red, cycling. He got up with a groan, his knees popping, and held out his hand for the android. He didn’t know why he tried, the death machine just pulled himself to his feet on his own anyway, as if he was trying to prove some point. 

He stumbled though and his LED went back to a cycle of red, even after Gavin wrapped an arm around his middle to help. The android wasn’t heavy as he leaned on Gavin but that was the least of his concerns. His own stress spiked as he realized what he was doing. He was about to help a deviant killing android out of Cyberlife industries, out into a place where there would be people, and they would all think that he cared.


	3. Chapter 3

Hank was standing in the cafeteria, waiting for them, his gun holstered and Gavin’s sitting on the counter. He did have a cup of coffee in hand but he was drinking it himself, the bastard. Gavin approached him slowly, the RK900 at his side still leaning on him. 

“Shit, what are you doing with that thing?” Hank grimaced. 

Gavin could feel the tightening of the android’s hand on his waist. “We’re completing our mission, getting all of the deviants out of the building. 

“And then what?” 

RK900 looked at him, that emotionless face teeming with concern and wonder. He still looked very afraid, though the shaking had stopped. “Then we’re going to get some medical care for our new friend.”

“And the charges?” 

“I don’t really care about that,” Gavin explained. “I don’t think we can really charge him for anything since he only did what he was programmed for.”

“He killed dozens-”

The shaking was back and Gavin pulled RK900 closer to himself. “Military androids aren’t charged for war crimes, child androids aren’t expected to be good at domestic chores, and gardener androids don’t make good police officers. It’s only after they deviate that they can be.” 

Hank surprised them both with a chuckle, “Fine, fine, but it’s up to Fowler, eventually. Come on then, I guess it’s time to get out of this shithole.”

Gavin had hoped to drop RK900 onto Hank’s side, to make the older detective walk him out of there, so Gavin wouldn’t be seen having a sensitive side, but he was worried about the guns. He knew that RK900 had a new mission and that he seemed like he was going to go through with it, but he was still worried that he would take one of their guns and destroy the last deviant in the building. He didn’t want that. 

They went down the elevator in silence, all of their stress levels climbing. What would everyone at work say? What was he going to do with RK900 after the day? What would happen once they left the building? 

“How you holding up?” Gavin asked, his voice so soft that Hank jumped and stared at him like he’d been possessed. 

“Stress levels at 74% and rising,” RK900 said, “There will be many deviants outside of the building and they will have remembered what I have done.”

“Oh, worm,” Gavin chewed on his tongue.

Hank laughed at that and RK900 looked at the floor, actually studying it, looking to see if there was anything in the elevator with them. “I have done a full scan and I have found no worms in the elevator.”

Gavin laughed as well then, stress sloughing off of them as he did. “Old expression. Means, ‘mood’ or ‘same’. I feel the same way that you do.”

Hank shook his head. “Gavin here’s a Gen Z, all the way through. He never grew out of the memes of his youth. He doesn’t understand the refinement of a rare Pepe.” 

“You wanna die?” Gavin growled. 

“I’m a bad bitch! You can’t kill me!” Hank put his hands up, cackling. 

The rest of the elevator trip was full of them making aged jokes at one another, quoting old videos and forgotten gifs at one another. RK900 didn’t seem to understand much of it but his eyes flattened on the bottom and the red of his LED swirled into a yellow, turning blue for a few turns as well. The fact that they were having a decent time, as short as it was, aided in his mission. 

Then they were in the lobby and they could see the crowd outside. It looked like the crowd at the set of a serial killer’s arrest. Markus was standing on top of a car, speaking loudly to try to get some form of control over the situation. RK900’s LED was immediately red once more. 

“Keep your head down,” Gavin instructed, “Stay close to me.”

“You’ll keep me safe.” RK900 said. 

Gavin froze for a moment, because yes, it was his job to, but there was so much trust in those words, it made Gavin realize just how much he would fight to keep RK900 from seeing jail time for what he’d done under Cyberlife’s control. 

“Yeah. Yeah, I will.” He ruffled RK900’s hair before Hank opened the door and they were blinded by the lights of journalists’ cameras, microphones shoved in their faces, and angry androids shouting loudly enough that the questions were drowned out. Gavin held the android to him closely as Hank pushed an arm out, keeping the crowd at bay. It was hard and it took far too long to get through the masses, but they were able to get to one of the tech vans, Hank shielding the pair of them with his body and his explanation that this was police business and there would be a full police statement once they had sorted through their facts. 

Troy was one of the techs at the station and Gavin was glad that he was currently without a patient, setting RK900 in with him. They didn’t have much of a reason to talk at work but the tech was cute enough and enough of an asshole for Gavin to have invited him out for drinks a time or two before. They weren’t really friends but Gavin trusted him to push his dickishness aside when he needed to, RK900 really needed him to. 

Troy helped the android sit in his van, one of those white windowless ones, the inside converted to a mobile lab. His hair was even messier, just a cloud of golden frizz from the way he always ran his hands through it when he was busy, than normal, but his voice was soft and comforting. “An RK900? I’ve never worked on one of you before.” 

“I’m the only one.” RK900 said. His eyes were still focused on Gavin but there was a note in his voice, a look in his eye, that made Gavin wonder if he was alright with that fact, that he was the only one. It would mean that any repairs would be a lot harder, he probably wouldn’t get as many replacement parts if he needed to. 

“Can you tell me where you’re hurt?” Troy ignored the complications and kept moving. 

The android started to respond, prattle off a short list, but Gavin’s attention was dragged away by another android shoving himself into the van, miscolored eyes catching him with a snarl. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” Markus shoved a finger against Gavin’s chest, pushing him back towards the wall of the van. 

“Uh, my job?” Gavin snarled back, not allowing the android to affect him. He thought that Hank was keeping the people at bay. Perhaps he thought Markus was important enough to let him have some special privileges. 

“That is a deviant killer!”

“Was!” Gavin corrected. “He deviated. Just like you all wanted him to. He’s not being controlled by his programming anymore.”

Markus finally looked over at the RK900 unit. Troy was working on his hip, his pants pulled down just enough for the wound to be seen. There was a long stripe of metal that had been embedded between the bones and Troy was wrestling it out with a wrench and a firm hand. There was no pain on the androids face, but the red of the LED was bright and solid and his cold eyes were darting from one to the other. 

“You should give him to Jericho,” Markus crossed his arms, “Allow us to do our own justice.”

Gavin crossed his arms too. “There’s no need for that. You should know better than a dumb human how deviancy effects people.”

“People?” Markus’ smile was full of venom. “I thought you hated androids.”

“I do,” Gavin’s voice was squeakier than he wanted it to be. 

“And yet you’re defending this one so admirably.” A finger went to Markus’ chin as he thought on it. A small smile graced Markus’ lips. “It’s not because he looks like-

“Stop saying he looks like Chicken Little!” Gavin interrupted, rolling his eyes. “He does not look like chicken little! Chicken little is a coward and he is not a coward!”

“I was going to say the RK800 model.”

“I know who you meant, dipshit. You’re brain is supposed to be a big super computer right? You should look up what a joke is.”

Markus paused for a moment, eyes glazed, and Gavin froze. Tin head was actually doing it. He got the leader of Jericho to look up a dictionary definition. He smiled though, chuckled softly, and shook his head. 

“A vine? You really need some new material, Detective.” He cocked his head, thinking on it. “Fine, you may do with him as you please, though I will be checking in, making sure that he doesn’t fall back into his initial programming. I wish you luck.”

“Don’t need it but thanks,” Gavin gave him a fake smile and watched him turn away to leave the van, much to the yelling of other androids and the press. 

He turned back to RK900, just in time to see the android look away, as if he weren’t supposed to eavesdrop. Troy was just finishing with his hip, soldering some plastic over the wound to close it back up.


End file.
